Good American Family — Hulu‘s new series about an Indiana family who begins to suspect their adopted daughter is someone else entirely — may seem far-fetched, but it’s based on one of the strangest true crime cases in recent memory.

The real-life case became a national sensation following the release of Investigation Discovery’s The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, a multi-part documentary series that attempts to unravel this twisted adoption story’s knot.

Here are the basics: In 2010, Kristine and Michael Barnett adopted Natalia Grace, a Ukrainian-born girl with a rare form of dwarfism. What follows are competing allegations of violence, abuse, deception, and abandonment.

The narratives are so contradictory that Good American Family, which stars Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass, employs a unique structure that gives weight to each character’s perspective. A legal disclaimer preceding each episode even notes that the series “reflects and dramatizes multiple conflicting points of view, and does not intend to suggest that any particular allegation is the whole truth.”

As such, that makes the question of whether Good American Family is a true story complex to answer. Read on as we work to unspool the strange saga of Natalia Grace.

What is Good American Family about?

Good American Family is about Natalia Grace, a child adopted by Kristine and Michael Barnett who already have three children of their own, one of whom has autism and a genius-level intellect.

After adopting Natalia, the family begins to notice troubling behaviors from her, including what they deem to potentially be premeditated acts of violence. Soon, they begin to suspect that she’s not a child, but actually an adult posing as one. (Yes, this sounds like the plot of the 2009 horror film Orphan, but this story plays out quite differently.)

Per Hulu, the series is “told from multiple points of view, as a means to explore issues of perspective, bias, and trauma.”

Who is Natalia Grace?

Natalia Grace was born in Ukraine with a rare form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, which can impact joint mobility and make it hard to breathe. According to PEOPLE, she spent much of her childhood in orphanages and “unstable homes.”

Natalia’s first adoptive family, a New Hampshire couple, ended up relinquishing her due to her disruptive behavior. In 2010, she was adopted by Michael and Kristine Barnett, the latter of whom was the successful author of The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing, Genius, and Autism, a book about raising a child with autism. They believed Natalia to be 6 years old at the time of the adoption.

What do the Barnetts say happened with Natalia?

According to the Barnetts, Natalia’s disruptive behavior turned violent in the months following her arrival in their home. They accused Natalia of several violent acts, including attempting to poison Kristine’s coffee and dragging her towards an electric fence. The couple also alleges that Natalia brought a knife into their bedroom as they slept.

The Barnetts claimed that Natalia had pubic hair, was menstruating, and had adult teeth, leading them to believe that their child was an adult posing as a minor. This led to the couple legally changing her date of birth from 2003 to 1989 — turning the 8-year-old into a 22-year-old in the eyes of the law.

The Barnetts moved Natalia into her own apartment in Hamilton County, Ind., following the birth certificate change and worked to help her obtain federal disability benefits. After her lease could not be renewed, they moved her to an apartment in Tippecanoe County, Ind., roughly an hour away from her previous address. The couple then relocated to Canada with their three sons.

Per court documents, “The Barnetts paid the first year’s rent for Natalia’s apartment but did not provide additional financial support; however, Natalia did receive $733 per month in federal disability benefits. Natalia never saw Kristine again and only saw Michael once at a court hearing held years later.”

During a 2019 appearance on Good Morning America, Michael defended his actions by saying that a doctor declared Natalia to be a “sociopath” and a “con artist” and that the Barnetts were “in danger.”

Natalia has denied the allegations. “I feel like I have to defend myself and be like, ‘Do I look like somebody that could push someone twice my size into a fence? Do I look like I could even grip a knife?’” she said in an interview with PEOPLE this past January.

“I really disliked being the girl who was re-aged and lived in her own apartment,” she continued. “I didn’t understand why I was alone. I just knew I had this instinct in me to push and survive. All I was told was, ‘You’re 22 now. Whenever somebody asks you what your age is, you say you’re 22 and you tried to murder your family.’ I was taught to lie.”

What does Natalia say happened with the Barnetts?

As Natalia tells it, Kristine was the violent one in their relationship. In The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, Natalia alleges that Kristine abused her with pepper spray, a belt, and excess doses of a prescribed medication. (Speaking in the documentary, Michael claims that he witnessed Kristine being cruel to Natalia and that she also “manipulated” him.)

Natalia took a blood test in 2023 via the medical lab TruDiagnostic that concluded she was 22 years old, which would have made her 9 years old, not 6 when she was adopted by the Barnetts in 2010.

“This one little piece of paper throws every single lie that the Barnetts has said right into the trash with a match,” she says in The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks. “This is so big. Because literally, this has been 13 years of just two people lying their butts off. They ruined a kid’s life. They painted [me] as some big monster.”

This also means that Natalia was, in fact, a child when the Barnetts left her to live alone. Speaking with PEOPLE, Natalia discussed the struggles of living alone with her disability, which made it difficult to climb the stairs and reach counters and appliances. Court documents reveal that a report was made to the Hamilton County Department of Child Services in August 2012 that Natalia was a child victim of abuse or neglect, but a petition was dismissed in court since Natalia had been “judicially determined” to be an adult.

In 2024, following the documentary’s release, Kristine denied Natalia and Michael’s claims in a post on Facebook. “She was not abused by anyone in my family. Let’s get straight to these allegations. Nobody ever took a belt to Natalia and the allegations that she was ‘beaten’ are just plain false. Any discipline of Natalia was very minimal and was not out of the bounds of normal parenting.”

She continued, “I believe Natalia takes advantage of that sympathy to manipulate people,” adding, “I believe this because I sat through numerous hospital visits and therapy visits trying to understand and help Natalia and thinking we might be able to find the root of the issue. In the end I learned she is a sociopath.”

As for Natalia’s re-aging and making her live alone in an apartment, Kristine wrote, “A series of legal happenings based on Natalia’s own behaviors, statements, and much evidence led to her being re-aged at the recommendation of law enforcement. As a result she was allowed to make her own adult decisions of where to live and what to do with her life and time while living where she has.”

Were the Barnetts charged with a crime?

Yes. Though previous cases regarding Natalia’s endangerment were dismissed, Kristine and Michael Barnett, who divorced in 2014, were each charged with neglecting a dependent in 2019.

Michael was acquitted of the charges in 2022, according to the Associated Press. Kristine’s charges were dismissed the following year, per WTHR.

Who are Antwon and Cynthia Mans?

Antwon and Cynthia Mans met Natalia when she lived at her Tippecanoe County apartment around the time the Barnetts relocated to Canada. Not too long after, Natalia moved in with the couple and their 10 children.

In 2016, the Manses petitioned the courts to vacate the previous age-change order and gain guardianship of Natalia. However, a required hearing to determine her age declared her to be an adult. Still, she continued to live with them, and the family was later able to adopt her in 2023.

While it seemed like a happy ending for Natalia, the latest edition of ID’s Natalia Grace documentary, The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter, paints a complex portrait of her life with the Manses, with allegations of physical and financial abuse.

Did Natalia Grace inspire the film Orphan?

If you made the connection between the Natalia Grace case and Jaume Collet-Serra‘s 2009 horror movie Orphan, you’re not alone. But while many have wondered if the film was inspired by the Natalia Grace case, that’s not possible. Natalia, after all, was adopted in 2010, a year after the film’s release.

So no, Natalia did not inspire Orphan. She does, however, think the film may have inspired the Barnetts. “It was all copied off the movie Orphan,” Natalia says in the docuseries. “Ukrainian girl, Russian girl, check. Orphan. Check. All this crazy stuff. Standing at the end of the bed with a knife. Check. That’s why I want to do this, that’s why I want to tell people what really happened, because I didn’t get that chance.”

Who’s in the Good American Family cast?

The Good American Family cast is led by newcomer Imogen Faith Reid as Natalia, as well as Grey’s Anatomy stalwart Ellen Pompeo as Kristine and The Morning Show‘s Mark Duplass as Michael.

The cast is rounded out by Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) as Cynthia Mans and Dulé Hill (The West Wing) as Brandon Drysdale, a fictional detective investigating the case.

Where can I watch Good American Family?

The first two episodes of Good American Family are now streaming on Hulu. New episodes drop every Wednesday until the finale on April 20.

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